Herman Essays (1635 words) - Moby-Dick, Herman Melville, Bartleby

Herman Melville Melville, Herman (1819-91), an American Novelist, is widely regarded as one of America's greatest and most influential novelists; known primarily as the author of Moby Dick. He belonged to a group of eminent pre-Civil War writers-American Romantics or members of the American Renaissance-who created a new and vigorous national literature. He is one of the notable examples of an American author whose work went largely unrecognized in his own time and died in obscurity. American novelist, a major literary figure whose exploration of psychological and metaphysical themes foreshadowed 20th-century literary concerns but whose works remained in obscurity until the 1920s, when his genius was finally recognized. Melville was born August 1, 1819, in New York City, into a family that had declined in the world. The Gansevoorts were solid, stable, eminent, prosperous people; the (Hermans Fathers side) Melvilles were somewhat less successful materially, possessing an unpredictable. erratic, mercurial strain. (Edinger 6). This difference between the Melvilles and Gansevoorts was the beginning of the trouble for the Melville family. Hermans mother tried to work her way up the social ladder by moving into bigger and better homes. While borrowing money from the bank, her husband was spending more than he was earning. It is my conclusion that Maria Melville never committed herself emotionally to her husband, but remained primarily attached to the well off Gansevoort family. (Humford 23) Allan Melville was also attached financially to the Gansevoorts for support. There is a lot of evidence concerning Melvilles relation to his mother Maria Melville. Apparently the older son Gansevoort who carried the mother's maiden name was distinctly her favorite. (Edinger 7) This was a sense of alienation the Herman Melville felt from his mother. This was one of the first symbolists to the Biblical Ishamel. In 1837 he shipped to Liverpool as a cabin boy. Upon returning to the U.S. he taught school and then sailed for the South Seas in 1841 on the whaler Acushnet. After an 18 month voyage he deserted the ship in the Marquesas Islands and with a companion lived for a month among the natives, who were cannibals. He escaped aboard an Australian trader, leaving it at Papeete, Tahiti, where he was imprisoned temporarily. He worked as a field laborer and then shipped to Honolulu, Hawaii, where in 1843 he enlisted as a seaman on the U.S. Navy frigate United States. After his discharge in 1844 he began to create novels out of his experiences and to take part in the literary life of Boston and New York City. Melville's first five novels all achieved quick popularity. Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846), Omoo, a Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (1847), and Mardi (1849) were romances of the South Sea islands. Redburn, His First Voyage (1849) was based on his own first trip to sea, and White-Jacket, or the World in a Man-of-War (1850) fictionalized his experiences in the navy. In 1850 Melville moved to a farm near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he became an intimate friend of Nathaniel Hawthorne, to whom he dedicated his masterpiece Moby-Dick; or The White Whale (1851). The central theme of the novel is the conflict between Captain Ahab, master of the whaler Pequod, and Moby-Dick, a great white whale that once tore off one of Ahab's legs at the knee. Ahab is dedicated to revenge; he drives himself and his crew, which includes Ishmael, narrator of the story, over the seas in a desperate search for his enemy. The body of the book is written in a wholly original, powerful narrative style, which, in certain sections of the work, Melville varied with great success. The most impressive of these sections are the rhetorically magnificent sermon delivered before sailing and the soliloquies of the mates; lengthy flats, passages conveying nonnarrative material, usually of a technical nature, such as the chapter about whales; and the more purely ornamental passages, such as the tale of the Tally-Ho, which can stand by themselves as short stories of merit. The work is invested with Ishmael's sense of profound wonder at his story, but nonetheless conveys full awareness that Ahab's quest can have but one end. And so it proves to be: Moby-Dick destroys the Pequod and all its crew save Ishmael. There is a certain streak of the supernatural being projected in the writings of Melville, as is amply obvious in Moby Dick. The story revolves around the idea of an awesome sea mammal, which drives the passions of revenge in one man and forces him to pursue a course of action which leads

How the Nazis Reigned in Germany essays

How the Nazi's Reigned in Germany essays The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June of 1914 ignited an immediate tightening of European alliances that resulted in a bloody World War. The people of Germany welcomed the news of the war, and the following frenzy of enlistment in the German army became known as August Madness. Germans were led to believe that they were winning the war because the government-controlled radio stations led them to believe nothing else. The end of World War I came abruptly and with unexpected results for the German citizens. Germany had lost, and harsh conditions were imposed on Germany upon the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which formally ended World War I. Hyperinflation and increasing unemployment left German citizens desiring a savior from their current condition. Beliefs as to why Germany lost the war, and the harsh conditions imposed by the Versailles Treaty, created a post-war environment of instability which proved to be a cultivating dish where a relatively unkn own National Socialist German Workers' Party could grow, through carefully selected propaganda, into the dominant party of German politics known as the Nazis. The Versailles Treaty, signed on January 18, 1919, stripped Germany of their colonial empire and forced harsh monetary reparations to be paid by Germany to the allied powers for damages suffered during the war. The treaty also incorporated article 231, known as the War Guilt Clause, which formally placed the blame of the Great War on Germany. Article 231 had a profound effect on German psychology because Germans felt they were at no more fault than any other party involved. The final article of interest was known as the Rhineland Demilitarized Zone, which made Germany remove all troops within a thirty-mile belt of the border with France. The Nazis gained fuel for their growing movement in the form of propaganda denouncing the Versailles treaty. In their twenty-five point party platform of 192...

Improvement of Practices in Teaching Arabic as a Second language To Term Paper

Improvement of Practices in Teaching Arabic as a Second language To Non-Native Speakers - Term Paper Example The paper proceeds to a discussion of the methods used for the action research, as well as a discussion of the data. From there the paper undertakes an involved analysis and discussion of the data and the results of the analysis of the data, prior to a more detailed discussion of the previous papers done in connection with the action research, together with the analysis and discussion that had been completed in the previous section. The paper then sums up the entire discussion with some conclusions and insights on the whole process, as well as the overall integration of the action research mindful of the findings of the action research as well as of future directions that can be undertaken related to the teaching of Arabic as a second language to non-native speakers. All throughout this process there is an eye towards a better understanding of the teaching process itself, from the perspective of both the teacher and of the students on the receiving end of the lessons. There is also a n eye out to being able to generate substantial insights into the data and into the previous exercises, to hopefully come up with breakthroughs with regard to teaching Arabic to such an audience and with regard to drastically improving learning outcomes and student satisfaction levels with the classes. Context This semester I have had a great a opportunity to teach an Arabic class for non-native speakers as students. Some of them even originally came from the Middle East but they could not speak nor write in the Arabic Language. During the time when I was researching a number of activities to help my students learn the Arabic language at the beginning of this semester, I came up with the inquiry method. I asked my students their reasons behind wanting to learn Arabic. There were different types of answers that I received during the inquiry session but the most interesting answer that I received was that learning Arabic is important so that he could become rich. I almost got stunned as to why someone would actually consider Arabic language learning as a way to become rich. On discussion with the same student, I got to know that people consider Arabic as important for getting a decent job which will help them gain wealth in return especially in a country not speak Arabic Language. There was a question I want to ask myself and other people, Am I a good teacher or not? but if I were to ask that question myself and look for an answer in the reputation I have among my past and present students and my student in the present time in the USA completely different on my student in Morocco , and then I believe that I am, on balance, a good teacher because when I was a teacher in Morocco I got a higher certificate from the ministry of education because I was the first and best teacher in Science in 2005, and I received a good and great award from Prince Khalid Al Hussein. Therefore, what this means is my teaching practice results in meaningful and substantive learning on t he part of my students. What and how I should be teaching my students, and how can I measure the degree to which they are learning what I am teaching them? The point is that I am regarded as a good teacher, and I believe that this reputation is not groundless. But, on other hand I want to say I am not in the high level of quality of teaching yet as far as language teaching is